Talk:Tactical Surface Fighter/@comment-110.21.38.28-20150923045155/@comment-4391208-20150923102949
ISes to TSFs: technologically superior, strategically inferior. There is a technological base with energy weapons and shielding, but since the dominant enemy type in IS are human-sized targets, it's hard to judge how it would hold up against battleship armor coated in anti-laser material. Size limitations also prevent IS users from engaging multiple targets at once from land, especially in melee against the larger strains where anything that isn't energy-formed is about as useful as a toothpick. 2 IS pilots can kill a lot of BETA and get away with it, but they probably can't stop the BETA from hitting the town behind them in the meantime. I suppose the benchmark would be the Revive models (since the Uchigane is never seen with any kind of actual fighting capabilities), and that actual customized ISes are supposed to be few and far between. Given their armament levels they're just as capable as TSFs, completely putting Exoskeletons to shame, but minus the load-bearing capabilities required to make good their attack options which once again brings us back to the "technologically superior, strategically inferior" part. All this, of course, hinges on the assumption that the barrier can actually block laser shots. While it blocks kinetic force from both energy weapons and projectile ones, there's insufficient data to determine if it also blocks ambient heat (since the pilots are not vacuum-protected it stands to reason that ambient transmission will be a concern in preventing IS operators from being slowly cooked alive every time there is a direct hit/near miss; heat/radiation injury will be a concern). Evasion and speed assault will be a plus for the IS, but, again, heat transmission, and hinging on the fact that the lasers can be blocked instead of simply breaking through the barrier. As well, it really depends on how the IS interprets threats, so unless physical contact with the smaller strains is registered as such, well, there are less painful ways to go than getting quartered alive. While the White Knight did amazing feats under Chifuyu, part of it is due to Chifuyu and there is ultimately only one Chifuyu who can't be everywhere at every time. One again, while an IS is pretty much superior in singular combat to any TSF fielded (except perhaps the F-22A where weapons that require lock-on would probably not work on it, but that's a minor issue), simply replacing all TSFs with ISes in offensive operations is a somewhat skewed comparison that doesn't take into account operator fatigue, accumulation of damage, or even strategic objectives of major battles. Hive assault/Reactor destruction, assuming the barrier works as it is named? IS can throw their weight around better than any TSF in a singular or even 3:1 unit count comparison. City defense? Even if they can't be shot down and they fly, the BETA will still get through and the city will still be lost. Change the scenario to a military base and losing a resupply point is as good as losing the territorial zone that it's on. The tech base is there, and in a 1-on-1 comparison there's little doubt of the IS's superiority. The question is the type of comparison you'd want to make: is it "ML world gains IS tech", in which time and R&D will all but guarantee victory, or is it "ML world gains IS cores", in which there are 467 cores in addition to the TSFs used by the human forces, which would also result in the aforementioned ending given time and resources, or "if TSFs were replaced by ISes" in which there'll be 467 cores replacing all known TSFs, in which case that would be terrible because you'd barely have enough units to watch more than a quarter total area of the worldwide defense line.